Today, we’re very pleased to bring you a thought-provoking chat with Eric Titus (pictured above right) of Titus Vineyards in Napa Valley. He owns the winery with his brother, Phillip Titus (left), the renowned winemaker. Eric is general manager of the business and head of vineyard operations.
Their estate sits along the beautiful Silverado Trail at the base of Howell Mountain in the St. Helena AVA. One handsome, modern building cleverly houses both the winemaking facility and the tasting space. Red roses, olive trees, and native grasses anchor the surroundings. A sleek patio looks directly onto their sustainably farmed vineyard, which stretches out to a lush, tea-green treeline along the Napa River. Beyond that, you can see the high, dark, forested ridges of the Mayacamas. The atmosphere in the tasting room is warm and focused.
It is pretty unusual to sit down with someone in charge of sales and marketing at a medium-sized winery who’s also directly responsible for grape quality, so we were keen to ask Eric about that. We also talk about sensing a Zinfandel resurgence, their winemaking philosophy – whether more art or science – and why their building looks so cool.
You can experience their elegantly feral 2023 Bald Mountain Zinfandel and a 10-year Titus library treasure – the mouth-filling, graceful 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon.
Eric grew up helping his brothers and father in the vineyard until leaving to earn a doctorate in biology. He delved into marine science and toxicology, working around the world as a researcher and environmental consultant throughout the 1990s, while also coming home periodically for harvest. The family gradually pivoted to making their own wine, and in 2002, Eric – who seems like a serious entrepreneur to the core and comfortable being in charge – decided to commit himself full-time to the venture.
Phil has made the Titus wines from the start, while simultaneously serving as winemaker at the iconic Chappellet on Pritchard Hill, which he’s recently scaled back from after a celebrated 35-year run and numerous 99 and 100-point scores.
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Starting with your building here, it's very appealing. Grounded – not ostentatious – but also chic. Do you remember what your conversations were about how it should look and feel?
This building's not all that old – we built it in 2015. Before that, we were custom crushing. And, we had a strong suspicion for the years leading up to that, that if we were really going to make a go of it in this business [in terms of both wine quality and selling directly to customers], we should try and get our own facility built.
We weren't a negociant-style winery – we really identified with the estate. We honestly thought in terms of just having a barn-style winery, kind of like everybody else here. But we put it out to several architects to give us their input. Matt Hollis was a name I was given. Do you know Kirk Venge? He did Kirk's winery. Because we're in the floodplain, Matt had the eye to say, you're going to be on the elevated berm, and visually you're up against the hills. He had the idea to make this kind of tiered look, a little bit more conforming with the Earth. It almost has that Frank Lloyd Wright look.
It really does. It feels both modern and natural. And your name, Titus, sounds like a proclamation. Does your family ever feel lucky having a great name for a winery?
Well, yeah, we didn't look far and wide for what to call it! It's a Greco-Roman name.
You're 100% family owned?
Yes, no outside investors or anything.
We tend to feel that small and medium-sized, family-owned wineries make more cohesive decisions, functioning almost like living organisms. You have your arms around every aspect. It can be a little more "do or die" and serious than if you had someone to fall back on. Thoughts?
I would agree. Being in the driver's seat, that do or die feeling comes along quite often. We feel the repercussions. I think it's understood that when you have a faceless – and ultimately ownerless – entity, there are decisions being made by people who might not even be in that position by the time the decisions are implemented. And that always kind of makes me wonder, with, say, a renovation [of a well-known winery] with a $250,000,000 price tag, whose vision is this? For better or for worse, in taking on a different ownership, what are the priorities… are we making the best quality wine that we can, or are we just being more ‘efficient’ and consolidating efforts?
And who's going to be responsible for making it work, and connecting with the customer?
Right. We're still at the point where it's all very personal. Taking this building on was a big step and you're reminded of it every day. And it's certainly beneficial. We built a really nice asset here.
It's interesting that your brother doesn't feel like he has to be in the weeds, so to speak, of the vineyard. You have a science background – you have a knack for the farming side. And you have a little in-house crew that knows the vines well?
Yeah. Phil doesn’t question too much about what's going on in the vineyard, because the quality is there. And he works closely with a vineyard manager at Chappellet, so there's a certain amount of trading notes and trading facts.
The Titus team pays close attention to matching rootstock and variety to the particular soil of each vineyard block. The yield of mature vines is kept low – approximately seven pounds per vine – for full flavor development. Their low-intensity farming approach includes avoiding pesticides, biocides, and unnecessary fertilization – and encouraging cover crops, beneficial native species, and soil health.
What is your favorite part of the growing season?
The harvest thing, of course, is the romantic one, and that's when everyone is so swamped. The hardest time for me is in early spring, because you've got all these different tasks going on. You're hoping the weather cooperates. If you're putting a new block in the ground, layer that on top of everything else that’s very time-sensitive. We run our own equipment, so we’re making sure everything is running well and gets fixed on time when it does break down – because breakdowns are pretty inevitable. It becomes a logistics play. We’ve got so much going on in a very compressed period of time, there's a lot of satisfaction in getting through the season successfully without just completely getting mired down.
Setting yourself up well.
Exactly. So what's really my favorite time? Summertime. There’s always something to do in the vineyard, but it's not urgent, and you're watching things evolve towards harvest. You can walk out there and see how things are coming along, late July, early August. That's a good time to go on vacation – you're not really going to miss much. As to the work that needs to be done, it's canopy management, making sure irrigation is going as it should be. It’s a relatively stress-free time, but everything is in full development and moving ahead. Harvest is always great, except there can be too many mornings in a row where you're starting at 3 AM.
Does your estate vineyard have a particular personality?
I do feel like the property has personality. I think it comes from being right on the Napa River.
The river is over there, where the tree line is?
Yes, so we would find Indian bowls and arrowheads and a lot of other artifacts from the indigenous tribes that were here. We have the human history, and also the natural history of the place, all kinds of wildlife associated with the river – fish migrating.
The land has been continuously farmed for 150 years. Eric's parents – Dr. Lee Titus, a Sonoma radiologist, and Ruth Traverso Titus, whose family were Italian immigrants from Piemonte – purchased the first portion of the property in 1968.
We have three different parcels: the 30 acres, the 10 acres adjacent, and then 10 acres over on Ehlers Lane, for a total of 50. So the 30 acres that we're sitting on now, that was all [initially] planted in a way that was typical of Napa Valley at a very different time. It was mostly Zinfandel and Carignan and other varieties that went into red blends. They hung big crops and they got ripe early. There wasn't a whole lot in the way of Cabernet. We evolved with the industry.
And how about your vineyard flavor-wise?
We're in the St. Helena appellation, and I feel like this site is very representative. The parent material of the soil is coming from the surrounding hills. But it’s also a lot of alluvial deposits from the river. So it's very sandy and gravelly, deep soil, but well drained. And we get some heat here. Not as hot as Calistoga, but it's high degree days compared to the AVAs farther south.
They’re big, full, structured wines. Softer tannins, a little bit more broad and round. Fruit forward. And the blending is where you kind of dictate your style – if you’re looking to build up structure or soften up tannins. We’re pretty aggressive in bringing Petit Verdot and Malbec and Merlot into our Cab program. Just putting together the little symphony there.
Is your brother a more creative type as a winemaker, or more analytical?
I'd say he's analytical first, and then the creative follows. I think of winemaking as more science than art. And I think he probably comes at it from the same way, because one has to understand that anything that's artistic has a science base. You’re really understanding how all those different chemical compounds are working together. When you finally get to the place you want with the blending – the style – chemistry is going to show that you got to where you want to be.
His background and my background were both in the hard sciences. I got into toxicology because of the public health issues that interfaced with science – it’s why I was interested in the commercial aspect of fisheries.
Your philosophy seems to inherently trust that, beyond style, the unquantifiable character will be there, because you're working with this ingredient – grapes – coming from Nature.
It's true.
We're featuring your 2023 Bald Mountain Vineyard Zinfandel, which I love. What do you like about Zinfandel?
We used to have more Zinfandel than we do now, so we like to honor the tradition. But of course, the wine style has to agree with the tradition. This fruit comes from a vineyard owned by the Thatcher family. It's half in Sonoma County and half in Napa County, in the hills above Oakville.
I like Zinfandel in its uniqueness. I like the spice, fruit, licorice-y, molasses-y character. It's a unique combination that integrates in a very interesting way. And no other variety really quite goes there. Pinot lovers will say there are some similarities in the flavor profile, and I would agree.
I think Zinfandel is starting to come back into favor.
We do, too!
Cabernet is certainly what brings everyone to Napa Valley, but we do a Merlot program, the Zinfandel, a Cabernet Franc. Those are what they tend to gravitate to once they get here.
Your Cabernet Franc is very special. And this Zin is so lovely – it has that classic, heartwarming generosity and it’s even a little feral but it’s also very fine and elegant.
I had a bottle with dinner last night, and I just really like where that wine's going right now.
How has it been, working with a sibling?
We've been working together for 25 or more years, co-owning Titus. But early on, we didn't really have a clear idea how the roles were going to be. He had started as full-time winemaker at Chappellet, and that just continued to roll into a pretty good situation.
We work together well, but we're not in each other's lap. He rarely questions what I'm doing as far as the positioning and the sales side of things. And since we built our own winery, there's been a resident winemaker. Phil oversees it all as director of winemaking, and is checking in closely during fermentations. But he doesn't have to be here going through the barrel room on a regular basis. The winemaker here is expected to be pretty hands-on.
Who is your resident winemaker?
It was Stephen Cruzan for a solid 10 years. [He made the 2023 Zinfandel.] And our current winemaker is Chuck McKahn, who also worked at Chappellet, and then spun off to be a winemaker for William Harrison. He also has his own family label called McKahn – very small, Rhône varieties. He's worked on some consulting projects with my brother, so he was a natural successor to Stephen.
What's your annual production?
North of 15,000 but south of 20,000 is what we shoot for.
Is there anything you'd like to mention to collectors who will be enjoying the Zin and Cab?
We always want people to discover us. The best endorsement is word of mouth – people telling their friends, telling their family, because it's vetted – if they truly have a good experience with the wine, and adopt us as one of their favorite wineries. That beats any kind of other PR you might get, any articles written about you.
Does Titus attract a particular type of customer?
Certainly those who are looking for family owned and operated. Also: non-pretentious. The positive feedback that we get regularly is: “You just seem like regular people. Like someone I would have gone to high school with.” Kind of no-frills. We do well in the Midwest, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri… places that tend to be “just tell me the way it is.”
And with the building, the architecture, the location, there's kind of something for everybody. We’ve had young influencer types here, admiring the building. Younger customers are less impressed by things just being expensive and exclusive, because I think they've seen all that.
What does impress them?
With us, I think the authenticity. That word is maybe overused, but people come here and I think they can see themselves in this situation. That really does resonate. Wine doesn't have to be so complicated.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
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This comment about Titus on TripAdvisor caught our eye: “They lie right next to a very famous winery, which has scores of visitors, but this is the place to visit to feel valued.” Plan your Titus experience on their website here. The Silverado Trail is such a special area – quieter than Highway 29 – and Titus is only a five-minute drive from all the fun in downtown St. Helena.